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Editorial - Public has right to know how its money is being spent by charter schools

Published: Thursday, June 12, 2014 at 10:45 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, June 12, 2014 at 10:45 p.m.

The Roger Bacon Academy, which runs half the charter schools in the Cape Fear region and will soon open another, has been loath to comply with even the most basic public records mandates. Its founder, Baker Mitchell, continues to insist that his company is exempt from the state’s open meetings and public records laws. Some other charter school operators around the state have contended the same thing.

The state Office of Charter Schools says differently. In April, the office wrote school operators reminding them that they could lose their charters if they fail to comply with the terms of transparency laws that apply to all public schools.

And how did Mitchell purport to comply? By releasing a composite showing the total spent on salaries in various departments. The headmasters’ salaries were lumped in with other administrative and support staff. Mitchell contends he doesn’t have to release the salaries by name, even though that has long been a requirement for the public schools.

Nor has the businessman who is pulling millions of dollars in “management fees” out of local public school budgets each year even pretended to outline how those management dollars were spent.

The Roger Bacon Academy operates three charter schools in the Cape Fear region: Charter Day School in Leland, Columbus Charter School in Whiteville and Douglass Academy in Wilmington. It will open South Brunswick Academy this fall. Three other local charter schools complied with a StarNews request for detailed salary information.

More than teachers’ salaries, and those of the headmasters who run the schools, that ought to be fully disclosed. The public has a right to know how its money is being spent, and who may be profiting from their hard-earned tax dollars. That means how much is going toward teachers, how much is spent on supplies, how much on rent and maintenance costs, and how much goes into the pockets of the people who run the for-profit and ostensibly nonprofit corporations that operate these schools.

The state Senate is considering a bill that would make it abundantly clear that Mitchell and other charter school owners and operators are bound by North Carolina’s public records and open-meetings laws. Period. The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday passed the bill that clarifies that point, as well as one that is intended to ensure that charter school proposals are not rejected arbitrarily.

But some Honorables have made noise about deleting the disclosure provision – the one that is supposed to assure taxpayers that their education dollars are being spent to educate children, not to enrich private companies being paid by the state to compete with public schools.

They should leave it in, and Gov. Pat McCrory should refuse to sign any bill that does not unequivocally state that charter schools, funded overwhelmingly by taxpayers’ money, are subject to the same disclosure rules as “other” public schools.

Of all people, Republican lawmakers who rode into office decrying wasteful government spending surely recognize that the best remedy for that thing they so despise is transparency – especially when it comes to how tax dollars are spent.

<p>The Roger Bacon Academy, which runs half the charter schools in the Cape Fear region and will soon open another, has been loath to comply with even the most basic public records mandates. Its founder, Baker Mitchell, continues to insist that his company is exempt from the state's open meetings and public records laws. Some other charter school operators around the state have contended the same thing.</p><p>The state Office of Charter Schools says differently. In April, the office wrote school operators reminding them that they could lose their charters if they fail to comply with the terms of transparency laws that apply to all public schools.</p><p>And how did Mitchell purport to comply? By releasing a composite showing the total spent on salaries in various departments. The headmasters' salaries were lumped in with other administrative and support staff. Mitchell contends he doesn't have to release the salaries by name, even though that has long been a requirement for the public schools.</p><p>Nor has the businessman who is pulling millions of dollars in “management fees” out of local public school budgets each year even pretended to outline how those management dollars were spent.</p><p>The Roger Bacon Academy operates three charter schools in the Cape Fear region: Charter Day School in <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic9971"><b>Leland</b></a>, Columbus Charter School in Whiteville and Douglass Academy in Wilmington. It will open South Brunswick Academy this fall. Three other local charter schools complied with a StarNews request for detailed salary information.</p><p>More than teachers' salaries, and those of the headmasters who run the schools, that ought to be fully disclosed. The public has a right to know how its money is being spent, and who may be profiting from their hard-earned tax dollars. That means how much is going toward teachers, how much is spent on supplies, how much on rent and maintenance costs, and how much goes into the pockets of the people who run the for-profit and ostensibly nonprofit corporations that operate these schools.</p><p>The state Senate is considering a bill that would make it abundantly clear that Mitchell and other charter school owners and operators are bound by North Carolina's public records and open-meetings laws. Period. The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday passed the bill that clarifies that point, as well as one that is intended to ensure that charter school proposals are not rejected arbitrarily.</p><p>But some Honorables have made noise about deleting the disclosure provision – the one that is supposed to assure taxpayers that their education dollars are being spent to educate children, not to enrich private companies being paid by the state to compete with public schools.</p><p>They should leave it in, and Gov. Pat McCrory should refuse to sign any bill that does not unequivocally state that charter schools, funded overwhelmingly by taxpayers' money, are subject to the same disclosure rules as “other” public schools.</p><p>Of all people, Republican lawmakers who rode into office decrying wasteful government spending surely recognize that the best remedy for that thing they so despise is transparency – especially when it comes to how tax dollars are spent.</p>